CIVIC INITIATIVES SUPPORT (CIS) PROGRAM MID-TERM PERFORMANCE EVALUATION REPORT

Implemented by FHI 360, CIS provides assistance for civic initiatives and advocacy efforts, strengthens the organizational capacity of civil society organizations (CSOs), and promotes collaboration between the Government of Jordan (GoJ) and civil society to address reform and development challenges. CIS awards grants to groups that carry out projects responding to citizens' demands and are engaged in thematic areas aligned with USAID's Country Development Cooperation Strategy (CDCS). CIS activities fall under three program components: Sub-awards in support of Jordanian Civil Society Initiatives, Capacity Building for Sustainability, and Enhancing Government-Civil Society Engagement. The program's primary goal is to support national and sub-national initiatives by CSOs, contribute to their organizational development, improve their service-delivery capacity, and develop their understanding of advocacy and inclination to engage in it. To achieve this, CIS provides institutional strengthening customized to individual CSOs' needs and delivers technical assistance to facilitate coalition building among CSOs and dialogue between civil society and the government. The evaluation of CIS is focused on four of the program's original interventions, selected based on size of funding, number of CSOs that received assistance, and demonstrable results. The evaluation team used a participatory planning approach that relied heavily on CIS staff input to finalize the evaluation questions and approach. The evaluation aims to provide specific guidance for USAID and CIS's workplan development and implementation for the remainder of CIS. It evaluates the effectiveness of CIS's grant-making mechanisms and capacity-building activities in supporting national and sub-national initiatives by CSOs. The evaluation is based on a comprehensive assessment of the civil society sector in Jordan, conducted from May through June 2015. The assessment had three objectives: to provide an up-to-date, detailed, and empirically-grounded analysis of the civil society sector; to facilitate the evaluation of CIS through an enhanced understanding of sector dynamics, challenges, and opportunities; and to formulate broader recommendations and suggest intervention priorities to guide USAID's efforts to support Jordanian civil society. The assessment is foundational to this evaluation and is recommended to be read in conjunction with this report. The evaluation team used a range of methods to collect data, including interviews with CIS staff, CSOs, and government officials, as well as a review of program documents and reports. The evaluation findings are presented in the following sections, which address the four evaluation questions: the effectiveness of CIS's grant-making mechanisms, the impact of CIS's capacity-building activities, the extent to which CIS's activities contribute to the development of CSOs, and the effectiveness of CIS's efforts to enhance government-civil society engagement.